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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Lots of women through out history have dealt with the issue of their looks. They want to feel beautiful and will try many things to achieve it. Today is far from uncommon for women to have surgeries that "fix" or change their bodies. Physical change, though, is not only found in this age of first world countries, it has been through out the world and history itself.

World Record Holder

One of the most well known forms of body modification is the corset. While few use it to the extremes of centuries past, they are still around. Women wore them to narrow their waist as much as possible. The garment was made of cloth and bone (later metal) and changed the waist by forcing the organs down and the ribs in and up. Books written in the time this was common often had women who boasted that their husbands could wrap both hands around their waists- and they were not exaggerating. There is a woman alive today, Cathie Jung, who, with the help of corsets, has narrowed her waist to 15in as confirmed by Guiness.

Women from Surma, Africa used to (and some still do) fit their lower lips with plates. Around twelve, when they hit puberty, they would have their lower teeth removed and a their lower lip cut and a plate inserted. As the years went by, they used bigger and bigger plates. This was because when they were to be married, their families could charge a greater bride price in cattle for a larger lip plate. In recent years girls have begun to refuse the plates though some men in their area say they will never marry a plateless woman.

In Padaung, women fit their necks, wrists, and ankles with metal rings that give them the appearance of being stretched. The rings push down the shoulders and lift the chin. These rings begin to be added at the age of 2-5 and one is added each year. By the time the women are in their twenties, they can no longer hold their heads upright without the rings or someone holding their head. To remove the rings without someone holding their head would mean that they would choke to death. Today women still do this because it brings tourists with money, its beginnings were much different. Wars in the region left many tribes without women, as their enemies would kidnap and/or rape them. To protect the women, they decided to make them ugly to every one but their own tribe and thus used the rings.

Lotus Shoes

Something that few people know about, though, was the Lotus feet from China. Girls between 4 and 7 would soak their feet in water and then clip the nails off. Next, their mothers would massage the feet and brake all but the big toe. The foot would then be bound tightly and placed in the shoe. It was very painful and caused girls to be unable to run and play like most. It began in the upper classes and spread through the lower.

Lotus Bound Foot

While it might sound cruel to do this to a child, it was often the only way for a woman to marry well. Families looking for wives for their sons would specify that they wanted a woman who had feet 3in or less in length. Binding their daughters feet, while keeping them from running and dancing, assured that they would marry into wealthy families. Bound feet were believed beautiful because they caused a slow walk with a sway that men found attractive. It was outlawed in 1912 but still practiced in secret. This is a webpage that tells how these women have lived since the practice was stopped.

Also, so that you know, the picture below is of a lotus foot. Those are not fingers holding the bottom of the foot, those are her toes.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Amongst the other remains of Pompeii, preserved food was
discovered. Whole meals left on the family table, the beginnings of
dinner in the kitchen, and carts full of wares. Loaves of bread were
found still bearing the marks of the bakers who made them (Albentiis
117). Such allowed archaeologists to see what was in the everyday
diets of people living in Pompeii. Abundances of one item and
scarcity of another would be shown through the storerooms full of
things stored for the future. Though they did not know it, the people
of Pompeii set up stores that would impact more than just their own
world.

Much has been learned from what is left of Pompeii. How
people lived, what they wore, and what they ate in this city gives a
window into all of Rome. Not only that, but what has been found is
not all that is yet to be discovered. As of the year 2000, only 66
acres of the recorded 163 acre city had been excavated (Sonneborn
65). That leaves around forty percent of Pompeii still unseen. What
important discoveries will still be made in Pompeii in the years to
come?

Friday, June 14, 2013

Considering the importance of wine to the people of
Pompeii, it being made from the the numerous vineyards that had
covered the mountain side, it is not surprising that evidence of
Bacchians was found in Pompeii. Bacchus was the god of theater, wine,
and revelry. A fresco in the House of the Centenary was found
depicting Bacchus, dressed in grapes, standing beside Mount Vesuvius.
Another fresco in the Villa of Mysteries showed the phases of an
initiation right into the cult. Oddly, no temple to Bacchus has been
found in Pompeii, however, that may be due to worship of Bacchus
being prohibited in 186 B. C. by the Roman Senate (Albentiis
50-55). Full of wine and “revelry”,
Bacchanalians were festivals held by Bacchians which often became
disorderly and frightened citizens not involved in the cult, which
caused the laws against them.

Throughout the city of Pompeii are found the physical
remains of the people who lived there. Bones of both man and animal
were excavated from homes, temples, places of business, and the
streets. At first, bones were simply removed from the ashes and moved
to other areas to be studied. Once moved, the bones might be relaid
in order to reenact the discoveries for visitors (Beard
5).
This left little evidence as to clothing and status of the
individuals, other than what could be deduced by the bones. Clothing
and hair prints could be found in the hardened ash, but most was
destroyed in the excavation of the remains. Perhaps one of the most
exciting finds was the preserved breast of a woman in the Villa of
Diomedes. It was the first body part found, other than a bone, that
has been successfully removed from the city ruins (Beard
6).

Though plaster had been available for a while before, it
was not used to create casts of Pompeii's victims until 1863.
Giuseppe Fiorelli was the one who decided to use the plaster, and
ever since it has helped with the further study of the people of
Pompeii (Dwyer
1). Plaster casts have allowed
archaeologists to view the complete forms of Pompeians in their last
moments. It had permitted more detailed study of garments and status
as they could be removed from the sites more readily.

With the help of the plaster casts, archaeologists have
been able to study the types of clothing worn in Pompeii at the time
Mount Vesuvius erupted. Imprints reveal weaves and textures that give
a hint as to styles of that time and the technology used to make
them. Discovering whether someone had worn wool or linen could also
help archaeologists determine what class this person belonged to and
their level of wealth. Further study of the Villa of Diomedes
revealed the skeletons of eighteen individuals and the garments they
wore. La Vega, the excavator, was able to deduce that one was a women
of means based on the quality of her clothing. Along side her were
those that La Vega hypothesized were slaves as they had no shoes to
speak of (Dwyer 9,10).

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Herculaneum was the first of the two cities to be
excavated. Under Charles of Bourbon, later King Charles III of Spain,
Colonel Rocque Joachin de Alcubierre was assigned to find artifacts
remaining from the city in Resina. The first remains were found by a
farmer in his field in 1738. Alcubierre dug tunnels in the hard soil
of Herculaneum, searching for and removing any remains that Charles
would like for his collection of artifacts. As a military engineer,
Alcubierre had no idea where to look or how to go about it. Often he
would search at random and take only what he believed the best,
covering back up the rest. He cared little for the buildings and
frescoes found, only the objects that could be displayed elsewhere
(Sonneborn
9, 13, 17).

In 1748, Alcubierre heard of marble statues found
within a collapsed field in La Civitá. Alcubierre was not the one to
find anything of significance at La Civtá, however. After a nearly
fruitless search he abandoned the site, only to have his assistant,
Karl Jakob Weber, find the true break through in 1755. Still, neither
realized it was Pompeii that had been discovered until 1763, when the words
“Res Publica Pompeianorum” were found on a wall. The words were
the official Roman title for Pompeii (Sonneborn 24, 25, 39).

Weber began open air excavations, allowing his men to
work faster. Where before this was impossible, in the loose soil of
Pompeii, it was far easier. The plan Weber used was to follow any
streets in order to hopefully discover more buildings. While the
method found little, it did reveal more area than others. He began to
uncover whole blocks of homes and paved streets. To those searching
for treasure to display, these were disappointments. However, from an
anthropological stand point, even these were significant. Buildings
uncovered were found to have advertisements painted on them for
things ranging from political offices to rooms for rent (Sonneborn
39-42). Such findings allowed a view into
the lives of the past.

Advertisements were not the only things found on the
walls of homes in Pompeii. Photographs taken by Alfredo and Pio
Foglia show murals decorating many a villa and place of business.
Preserved by the ash of Mount Vesuvius, these murals were found in
nearly perfect condition, most bearing little to no wear. The still
vibrant colors reveal the amount of skill Pompeii artists had
developed, as well as what was most important to those who lived in
the city. Images of Roman gods, theaters, and everyday items were
among the numerous findings (Albentiis 91, 110).

Statues were found abundantly in the city of Pompeii.
Statues of gladiators and Caesars, gods and goddess abounded. One
find of Weber's was that of a small statue of the goddess Diana. This
statue was found with its original paint still intact (Sonneborn
51). Other finds were a faun in the House
of the Faun and a bronze figure of Apollo used as a lamp stand in the
House of Julius Polybius
(Albentiis 46, 170).